COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) - In his first news conference as governor elect, John Kasich de-railed plans for high speed trains connecting Dayton to the rest of the state.

In a press conference with reporters from around the state, Kasich outlined his priorities for taking Ohio into the future.

"My message today is to get jobs going in this state," said Kasich.

Political analysts said the economy is what helped Kasich win the election, now he wants the economy to win for Ohio.

"We have to become competitive. We've got to show the people of this state that we can manage the budget and we are going to be very aggressively talking to businesses both in this state, and outside of this state," said Kasich.

Kasich also answered questions about education, saying he needed to have a serious conversation with educators about unfunded mandates. Kasich is strongly against Governor Ted Strickland's evidence based model of education, saying there are no funds to enforce it.

"We are going to get dollars into the classroom, and push shared services, and make sure there's no excuse for multiple school districts not being able to share administrators. There's too many things going on out there that are not business like," said Kasich.

Kasich also had a direct message for the teacher's union, who blasted him during the campaign for his stance on the merit pay and holding teachers accountable.

"I am waiting for the teachers union to take out full page ads in all of the newspapers apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign," said Kasich.

An issue important to many in the Miami Valley was the future of the 3-C rail, that would bring passenger rail travel into the region.

Kasich minched no words about the future of passenger rail service in Dayton and the rest of the state.

"That train is dead. I said it during the campaign. It is dead. Passenger rail is not in Ohio's future."

Kasich went on to say that he did support expanding the rails to help with the transportation of goods, just not for passengers.

2 News asked Dayton officials about Kasich's remarks.

City economic development director John Gower said it was too early to comment.

The train is dead. Thank you, Governor-elect! They’re totally overpriced for the few passengers that would ride the 3-C corridor. And the stupid thing is supposed to start out averaging 47 mi/h. Which means the novelty would quickly wear off.

6
posted on 11/03/2010 6:58:43 PM PDT
by Right Wing Assault
(The Obama magic is <strike>fading</strike>gone.)

The train is dead. Thank you, Governor-elect! Theyre totally overpriced for the few passengers that would ride the 3-C corridor. And the stupid thing is supposed to start out averaging 47 mi/h. Which means the novelty would quickly wear off.

We are not much of a train nation anymore, we love our cars, that's simple. Rail is OK for freight though, but I'm glad Kasich realizes we cannot fund this nor should we waste the money. IIRC, I can't remember where I read this but average speed of a train was higher in 1900 than it is now.

BTW, Kasich is from McKees Rocks, a suburb of Pittsburgh which is near me.

10
posted on 11/03/2010 7:03:11 PM PDT
by Nowhere Man
(General James Mattoon Scott, where are you when we need you? We need a regime change.)

I can only hope that Kasich does to the Teachers’ Unions EXACTLY what Christie has done in HIS State. Unions are what drives Ohio into becoming a 3rd World enclave in its major cities, infested with taxpayer-fed parasites who have not worked meaningfully in their entire lives, and live in Democrat-controlled cesspools. AFSCME, SEIU, and the other bloated extortionist groups should be prosecuted and run out of town State-wide.

Do you know what the political climate is like in Indiana? Is it favorable for trains or no?

Id rather not see a fight within the Michigan GOP at this point and it would be best if high speed rail simply became a non issue for Michigan. If the train has no place to go, Snyder could drop it gracefully.

20
posted on 11/03/2010 7:18:21 PM PDT
by cripplecreek
(Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))

>>”I am waiting for the teachers union to take out full page ads in all of the newspapers apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign,” said Kasich.<<Do we have another Christie here?

There have been many thoughtful articles written explaining how this light rail plan was impractcal and infeasible every way itould be examined. Yet the Dems pressed on. Liberalism is a form of insanity.

There have been many thoughtful articles written explaining how this light rail plan was impractcal and infeasible every way it could be examined. Yet the Dems pressed on. Liberalism is a form of insanity.

We could have used Kasich eight years ago. Bill Richardson used just under 1/2 billion targeted for road construction to build Richardson's Railroad which serves several hundred passengers per day in NM along the relatively sparsely populated Rio Grande corridor (compared to big cities like Chicago). It travels from small towns Belen and Los Lunas to ABQ then north to Santa Fe. It runs generally alongside 75 mph I-25 and for the final 15 miles to SF in the highway median! Operating costs are paid 87% by taxpayers and only 13% by passengers (I suspect its actually under 10% if the accounting was done properly.) King Richard has less than 60 days left in his reign, replaced by a Republican.

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